We need to automate more!

I DO not normally like to quote facts and figures, however with the latest report out form the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), it is not a good picture for UK manufacturing. The measurement that is used by the IFR is the number of robots installed per 10,000 employees – we now rank 24th. That puts us behind countries like Denmark (10th), Austria (14th), Canada (19th), Slovakia (20th) and the Czech Republic (21st), all of which have a smaller population than the UK. If we include the Automotive sector, the UK scores 101 robots per 10,000; however, if we exclude the Automotive sector, then it is a depressing 53/10,000. The world average is 126 robots per 10,000 employees so we are way behind the rest of the pack.  

Improve efficiency

So how can we change this? Simply put, we need to automate more! We all know that implementing automation can improve efficiency, but there is a lot more that we can look at to improve the situation, especially now that our energy costs are spiralling out of control. If you have read one of my articles before, you may well remember a previous article where I mention using Automation for meeting sustainability goals and before that where I mentioned connected manufacturing being used for line balancing. To save you looking back, line balancing is when the machines talk to each other to call for more product or to hold off because that part of the line is over saturated with product. Why is this important? It saves backing a line up, potentially causing quality issues on time sensitive production, but can also help with controlling processes to ensure that energy is saved whenever possible.

By implementing a connected manufacturing strategy, it is also possible to analyse the data output from the line control systems to determine where additional time savings or energy savings can be achieved. If the data shows that one part of the process is the bottle neck, then it is pointless running all equipment upstream of that process at full speed, only to have it running at a start-stop pace. Think about it as if you were stuck in traffic. It is far more fuel efficient to keep a slow steady pace and not stop-start just to move a few hundred yards at a time. The same applies with automation – smooth robots are efficient robots, plus it saves energy as well as wear and tear on the equipment.

Robot picking

It doesn’t matter if you have one robot or a hundred, the theory is the same. Robots that are fed by a manual station – or that feed a manual station, the same principles can be implemented. What I mean by this is that the manual stations will often dictate the speed of the automation, especially when it is break or lunch time. One way of resolving this issue would be to use robots to pick and load the manual stations, possibly by making use of a vision system.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should eliminate the human operatives in favour of automation, however by implementing automation, it would free those operatives up to perform more value-add applications. This will generate better jobs, increase job satisfaction, and hopefully increase employee retention.

If you would like to start your automation journey, but don’t know where to start – I would highly recommend visiting the BARA website detailed below where we have outlined several topics under the Expert Advice section to give some initial information. While you are there, why not register for our next Roundtable discussion? You could also watch some of our previous Roundtables as there is likely to be just the information you have been searching for contained within the talks.

www.ppma.co.uk/bara